April 23rd Letter

Hola familia y amigas,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE BROTHERS DALLEN AND HAYDEN!!! WOHOOO"!!! THE BIG 16!!!!
 Yesterday I had to prepare a talk about missionary work in one hour which is hard to do in Spanish. As I was preparing I learned so many neat ways that members can serve. Some of the which are simple actions of paying tithing and praying for missionaries to find people or preparing the children with the idea to serve.  That each of this things are small and simple but  truly affect the big part of The Lord´s work. We don´t need each member walking in the streets with us ( which would be awesome), however we need each members hearts and minds in this work. Always testifying and giving what they can to build this work. My companion spoke about the reason missionary work is so important is because it shows our love for the Atonement, When we each gain the knowledge and understanding of the Atonement and how it has blessed our lives and brings so much happiness to our lives, how could we not share this message with everyone that we meet. How could we not all leave our homes and families and dreams for 18 to 24 months for the Lord. This is why am here and so many others, is because we truly love the Lord and are so grateful for his atonement and for the knowledge we have thanks to the Gospel of Jesus Christ .  A mission may seem a long time for many people, but in the Lords eyes its more then years its how we show our love. I know that not all of us can be set apart as missionaries, but with our actions and service in other ways is how we can build up the Lords kingdom.
  This week was great we found two new investigators through our menos activos which during our first lesson with them one commented on how he wants to serve a mission but after he studies a little and how he knows he needs to be baptized but isn't ready. (This is Manual a twin of a member) We were headed to his house before church and Dante the twin said his brother wasn't ready so only him would come and as we were sitting in the chapel with Victor in walked Dante, Manual, his less active grandmother and a cousin who isn't a member. It was so neat..  I am super excited for this weekend our cute 13 year old investigators Victor who was first taught by Elders Jimenez and Edwards (who ended the mission in dec)is now going to be baptized this Saturday ( TWO YEARS LATER) and his brother is now interested in the gospel so we are teaching him. Victor is so great he has his baptismal clothes all picked out and is so ready for Saturday to come.. I can´t wait to send you all pictures of the baptism.
I had the opportunity to listen to Elder and Sister Richards the other day,(of the seventy) It was probably the strongest  meeting with the spirit that  I have felt in a long time. I felt the spirit so strong and have the desires to feel the same spirit  every day in my lessons. That I may feel the power of God in every lesson that I teach. I am working on increasing my faith in him so that I may see more miracles here in Chile and at home.

I love this work and am so grateful for all your prayers and support you each give.
 p.s. mothers day we can Skype what time is good for you!!! crazy
p.s. ( please be careful with my car Dallen and Hayden( which means they cant drive it haha but serious)
Te Querio

April 16th Letter

Hola Familia y amigos,

¡Que triste nadie le gusta me carta en español! ( how sad that no one liked my Spanish letter) 

  Sorry to hear that no one enjoyed my letter in Spanish, I guess I will only do that again when mom and dad don't write me. hahaha jk .Wow this week went by fast but no worries it was a really good week. We have been finding new people to teach here and  so May is going to have a lot of baptisms.  Our cute little investigator Victor received permission to be baptized the 28th!! Which is so exciting because he has been hearing the missionaries for 2 years now. He is definitely going to be an Elder when he older with how much missionary work he does with us. Our sector is great I hope i´m getting skinner with how much I walk up these huge hills every day. Our mission is reading 2 Nefi in Spanish for us gringo which helps me with my Spanish but I don't understand it all so that some times is annoying.I´m still waiting for the day when everything clicks in my head. We are also reading the characterizes of Christ  which is very humble experience. I am trying hard every day to become more Christlike in all my actions and thoughts. I have found that patience is the one I lack the most however  Hna Reyes helps me a lot to be more patience and understanding with everyone.  I have enjoyed this month a lot as we have been talking about the Resurrection and the atonement   

The atonement of Christ is the greatest gift that we have from The Lord, thanks to Christ we can be forgiven of all our sins and to be able to repent every day to become clean and more  like him. That without this atonement the purpose here on earth is nothing and we could never return to the heavens to live with God or our families. I am truly grateful for this time that I have been able to understand more of the blessings of this gospel and how important every step of The Saviors life happened for us. I'm so grateful to know that Christ lives and that we too may obtain a perfect body after this life and that there is so much more awaiting for us in the heavens. I know that one of the things we can do as children of God to prepare ourselves to live with him again is to study all the attributes of Christ to have faith, hope, love, charity, knowledge, to be humble, patience, obedient.  When we work on each of these attributes we will become more like our savior and we will have the spirit more strongly in our lives which will bring joy, happiness, love,and peace. How could we not want each of those  qualities everyday. No one here is perfect and may never complete all of these attributes at once but we have a whole life time to work on being the very best in these areas.

I love you all and hope that you will each work hard this month to be more Christlike in all that you do. To chose one category and become the very best you in that characterize.

Cuidese mucho

Hna Burnett

March 26th Letter

Hola Mi Familia and Amigas!!

So this week went by slow but was still good.. Hna Menghini back has been hurting so we weren’t able to work a day and half which was so weird... I did not like being in the house all day reading and studying ah I started to go a little crazy... She keeps caring around her bag even though nothing is in it and then her neck starts to hurt again. So me being me said “no you are not taking your backpack give me your papers and planner too, you are not allowed to use it”. So I have been caring around extra load of books for about two weeks and Saturday I started to feel the pain in my back. Haha yeah not good.. Oh well, so I took out the bible which helped a little yesterday.

We have been having great lessons with our cute Cifuentas family that is planning on being baptized 21 Abril. It’s so exciting to be teaching a whole family this gospel. Guillermo our other investigator enrolled into institute and is reading the manual for the class. He has been progressing so much. He lives with a family that has active member; less actives and reactive (hahaha) this house has many different types of members.. It’s been really great here in Maray I can say I know all the entire active member and where they live and work and how many dogs they have. I love this feeling of being part of the ward. All of our less actives are now reactive!!! Wahoo it´s been so neat to watch everyone grow in their testimonies and see the Light of Christ glow in their eyes. Alejandra our recent convert came yesterday without us calling to invite and she was early!! She is so neat and really loves this gospel to the fullest she is reading all the daughters in my kingdom book and participating tons in our principle of gospel class.

Saturday night we received a phone call from the assistants and ¿sabe que? Yo voy a ANTOFAGASTA!!! I leave today at 3:00pm. And arrived really late there but it’s all good cause my companion is Hermana Reyes, she is from Chile so that means I´m going to pick up a Chilean accent!!! Wahoo!! I’m so sad to be leaving Maray but my time has come to an end here. The greatest thing is I’m with another Latina and I’m going to a huge ward of 130 people!! Yay

Te quiero mucho!! Thanks for the letters, support and prayers!! I love hearing how Bryon is doing!! He is all grown up. I’m so proud of my little bro!!! I´m glad you went to festival of colors, its fun uh, I love the pictures mom!! Thanks... I love and miss you tons Hayden!! Congrats on getting good grades and for not having court... You need to get out of the house though and go places the play station will be in the house waiting for you when you’re done... Love you tons Dallen!! Keep up the good work in school!! Love you Roland and miss your letters.. Love you mom and dad!!! Thanks for everything!!



Cuidese

Hermana Burnett

March 20th Letter

Hola familia,
So we finally have a ward mission leader  hno servino, and he is great. He is an Rm and jokes all the time I really don't want this calling but then starts to share all of his ideas and great plans for this ward. And how the members need to take on more responsibility and how he wants a member at every investigators lesson. And he continues on with all these great plans .. It is so great to talk with him every day cause he has such grand plans that are the same as Prsident Bruce. This weekend we had a baptism and all we did was set up chairs. It was really different we didn't have any responsibilities. We walked into the chapel just before 8pm and there were 5 sisters of the ward and 3 brethren and music playing it was so pretty. It was a very beautiful experience and I can´t wait to have another. I am falling in Love with Maray!! The ward is growing on me and I am learning to devote all my time and effort to the wonderful people here. We have a family from Chañaral that has been investigating for 3 years , they were married so that they could be baptized and their daughter recently completed 8 so we are preparing them to be baptized Abril!!! Yay !! Thanks for the letters its great to hear encouragement..
 I had an intercombio with Hna Chen the other day and it was so great . She let me teach and had confidence and me . I truly felt like myself . I felt really good. I lost a bit of my confidence here but Hna Chen helped me a lot the other.. It was a great day..
The following day we headed to  the top of a hill and built a house for a family in the ward. And it was a little hard cause the dirt/sand is full of rocks and not very easy to move..
I love this work !!!!!

I wrote a really cute letter and of course I accidentally deleted it so sorry for this be short cause now i don't have time to write you all .

Thanks for everything
Hermana Burnett
Casilla de Correo 70
Antofagasta Chile
S.A.

The house we built

Cleaning out the dirty water and spiders

The Sone Atcama

 Me in the street of Villa San Fernando ( Maray)

Aljendra and her family

March 12th Letter

 HI FAMILIA AND AMIGOS!!

This week came and went pretty fast. We lost the first round of March Madness :(  So I wasn't a very happy camper Tuesday.  We find out tomorrow if we made it to the 2 round of the Consolation bracket. I'm doing alright with my companion,  I am learning how to have self control over my emotions in that  fact that i am in control of how i feel. I am thankful for the opportunity to be in Maray I am loving every minute here. This has been my longest sector (THREE MONTHS) so I have been able to get to know all the members and to  gain their trust.
  We are preparing a mother of 2 recent converts  to baptize this sat. Her story is the same as my first baptism here in the mission.Its been so neat watching her grow and to see the light of Christ in her eyes. We had an investigator come to church solo, with out us calling or bugging it was so neat and to watch him sit for all three hours was even better.  It was testimony meeting and the members shared very strong and divine testimonies and class was about the priesthood. What a wonderful Sunday to have investigators.  This is when the spirit hits me strong,to watch the people you have been teaching progress solo. Our other investigators Ana and Emilia are understanding more and are thinking about baptisms also..!! ah its been so neat to watch our little sheep grow and change and accept this gospel. We finally have a Lider of Misional  which is going to help us a lot  with working with the members and activities.
 We were leaving lunch last Sunday when a women stopped us and said ¨ We have been waiting for missionaries to pass by, the elders said you could come by cause we want our daughter to be baptize¨  So Hna. Menghini and I are thinking okay they are less actives and the daughter will be counted as the wards baptism.  We can still help the family be eternal. We pass by on Tuesday and the dad gives us this nice long testimony and I lose track of what he is saying so I decided to ask when was he baptized.. He mentions I'm not , she is but me and my daughter aren't... My heart starts to race... in my mind I m thinking YES!! WOW GREAT !! We can baptized a father and daughter!!!! Then 2 mins later my companion is confused and mentions so only you are baptized? and the dad says NO!!!  None of them , they  took the lessons and Chanaral and recently got married because that was one of the rules for them to get baptized... But they moved here and waited for the daughter to turn 8 and now they are all ready to be baptized.. So yep I get to baptize a family in April!! how neat is this!!! I'm so so stoked we really get to help this family be  TOGETHER FOREVER!!!..


keep reading and enduring to the end in the Gospel and the Lord will bless you each very much
Cuidese Mucho
Hermana Burnett
xoxox

March 6th Letter

Hola familia!!!

Como estan?  Thanks for your letter dad!! I loved it !! It so made my day.. Im so glad to hear that you had a fun birthday party for Joslyn, thanks for the fotos it was great to see everyone.. The mission is good.. WE have a investigator named Melissa, she the niece of a member . she is 22yrs and studying to be an English teacher, so i speak English with her and its so fun.. We had a wonderful lesson with her, the mom and uncle the other day . she loved the restoration and wants to know more.. so we are working on her to be baptized this month with her mom.. We have another invest.. Maggie who is a friend of a less act who loved the plan salvation. she showed up to stake conference where we had Elders Perry and Christopher speak.. it was so neat.. after she told us she going to buy skirt for next week.. how cute!!! ah We are doing good.. President Bruce has us playing a mission march madness... we find out tomorrow if we proceeded to round two... wish us luck!!!  I m struggling to speak proper Spanish and everyone mentions oh you have 6 months here why cant i understand you.. its a big roller coaster some days of self confidence with the language but I'm pushing on... we have been given the challenge to read 1 nefi in spanish for gringos and English for Latins.. so hopefully i will become more fluent.. I know this language is a lot easier then other but its just not sticking in my mind... Our ward is starting to become more united and work together to strength the people here..

fotos of us playing monopoly DEAL.. it reminded me of home :(

LOve you all
hna Burnett

February 27th Letter

My short hair

Maray

Hola Familia,

We hosted a BOM jeopardy this week for the ward and everyone loved it .. I´m doing good here in  Maray ,  we´re waiting for everyone to return from the beach.. We have some good investigators they just aren't coming to church on the weekend, which is the most important part. School starts the 5th yay!!! this means more people to teach. I am baking brownies and cookies left and right because president Bruce gave us the goal to give out cookies 12 times for our invest.  and can i say that when i make them our appointment  falls through and when i dont the investigators there. hmm so I´m going to make  hna. menghini bake..   We have this cute young couple that our Menos activo that we have been working with since January and the other day the Juan was talking a lot in our lesson and the Carla asked him when are we going to attend Church.. She is so ready to come back and have her baby blessed.. As we were leaving she said so when can we host a  FHE·.. how cute.. Its such a great feeling to watch our Less actives become involved again,... We have two others in which one is blessing the sacrament and the other asking when he can work with us. The Lord´s work is so great and truly brings joy and happiness into our life. I have been struggling with teaching the doctrine during the lessons. I know that part of it is because my Spanish isn´t  progressing right now , I feel .I´m working hard on the language but I'm still struggling  here and there , which gets me down sometimes but I´m pushing through...  We are working hard to unit the members here so that they can help the less actives and recent converts. I hope that you all are reading the Book of Mormon. I know the days I don't read it on Mondays cause were cleaning and getting ready to leave that I feel different I don´t feel the strongest.. Read everyday even one verse and I know the Lord will help you in school, work and all other areas of your life. I receive two beautiful valentines cards today!! thanks Mom and Mindy !!! I loved them and thanks Sister. Liddle for your Holiday card.. Yay  for Katie returning!! That's so exciting send me pictures!! Can you believe I complete 8 MONTHS this 29th!! wow!! crazy...

Love each one of you!!
Hna Burnett

February 20th Letter

FELIZ DIA VALENTIN!! !

HOLA
So me and my companion are doing pretty good.. We are both leaders and like to take charge so this might be a bumpy adventure with her but I have faith that we can work together and that I can learn from her... I love my total Latin zone with 3 Utah elders its great it pushes me to speak Spanish a lot more which I am still struggling with, more of the proper verbs and sentences...  We did water balloon volleyball today it was great... I then went and final trimmed my hair which mom was the last to cut it and oh my!! My hair is SHORT!!!  Like little girl hair and it’s very triste!! And it’s going to be fall here soon so no need for really short hair but Hermana Burnett has it!!!  We are having a hard time to find new people, but I think this week will be great because everyone will be back from the beach. Yesterday we had 2 menos activos that I have been visiting for 7 weeks to get them to come and yesterday they were there sitting together!! It was such a nice blessing… I recognize of their faces but couldn’t put a name to her so I asked her and she all you visit me twice I live on the corner… I was so embarrassed… but oh well she was there at church!!! One of you hermanos we reactive blessed sacrament and the other gave a talk it was so nice to see! The spirit was really strong... and this Friday was have one of the members son is returning from the mission we are having a big activity!!! Hopefully more will come to this one… I love you all and am so grateful to be here serving... I have seen so many blessings of the Lords hand here in Chile. Keep reading, praying and assisting the church and the Lord Will strength you through your days...

Con amor,
Hna Burnett

All of the sisters in my zone

My new short hair!

Atacama Zone

February 13th Letter

hola Familia y Amigas

So this week was AWESOME!!!! Did I mention that we just had a two day conference with our great President and Hermana Bruce and then Elder Zeballo and his wife!!! Ah it was so neat Elder Zeballo is from the seventies and came with Elder Cook back in Nov. which was only 4 months ago. During this conference I could not understand either of them all and wanted them to hurry so that I could listen to the others and now I was able to understand each of their talks. It was such a great feeling and I know that its the gift of tongues.  I am still struggling here and there with speaking but understanding the people is about a 90% now which is a great feeling.   This conference was great I learned the importance of English and how it really is the Language of God and that I need to treasure my Spanish for after the mission . That I am here to help the people come unto Christ however to also learn Spanish..  We didn't have a lot of lessons this week but we had success. We has a ward activity in which only 3 people showed we played BOM Jeopardy and they all had a great time. Two of our MA came and an invest. so this was great to see.  Last week we cleaned the church 8 toilets and 5 urinals oh my this was hard work , and we got to clean the church again on Saturday, I choose the chapel... hahaha...   One of our MA came to church again we are preparing him to receive the priesthood in March so it was great to see his happy face.. We had a MA for many years show up after church today and ask to hear about the church cause she was to have a Christian family. how neat is that....I had a  a great 6 weeks with hna Fernandez, she was great and just what i needed. And now cambios are here and of course I am changing but not places companions with another Argentina  hna Meghini, I have only worked with her once but know she is a hard worker.. Funny story after church there was this really gringo family in the halls and one of our hermanas said go over and say hello or hi I think there from the states... So I slowly walked over and greeted in Spanish and was about to speak English when she said oh were from Argentina... hahaha  yeah from now on no more listening to hna Olga. hahaha

Love you all tons and hope this makes since I found myself writing in Spanish at some parts.. this is good right..

With Hna Butler

Hna Fernandez

With Hna Fernandez at zone conference

With Hna Fernandez

With Elder Lopez

January 30th Letter

Yummy dessert

My favorite Chilean dish (don't know the name)

Taking a short cut

Hola hola!!!

This week has been long but good. We have been able to visit many less actives and see the fruits of our labor when one of our older grandpa who is very prideful and stopped attending church because the church lost his paperwork saying that he had the priesthood. After a few good very bold lessons we got him to commit to coming to church and it was so neat. He arrived with his wife and son with his family. He had a great big smile as people went up and hugged him. It was so neat to see. This moment strength my testimony of home and visiting teaching... Be obedient and take the time to visit your sisters and families that you have been assigned too. This people need our visit and need to feel the spirit that we have so strongly.
The other day we went to visit this hermano and while we were there, him and his friend and my companion and they began arguing about things in the bible for 30 mins. It was a very intense debate. I finally had the courage and strength to stop them and tell them I was sad that they had been debating for this long that our purpose as missionaries was to come by and visit our hermano because he was baptized. I then testified of our church and our prophet and the purpose of our work. I felt the spirit so strong, it felt so great to take a stand. I learned a lot from that lesson and how lucky we are to have the Holy Ghost in our lives. I challenge you all to take a stand when someone is talking bad about the church or another person. Be like Christ, be better than those people, be different and listen to the Holy Ghost.
I have been reading a lot of great talks in the Liahonas by president Monson and want you all to Google them because I know they will make your day!!!

Love you all very much!!
Hna Burnett

January 23rd Letter

HOLA HOLA!!!
Como estan familia? I hope everyone is enjoying a nice cold winter because I am dying here in  with this heat!! Can I just say that I am SO SO VERY GRATEFUL FOR WIND!!!!! Yes wind and shade!! Ah I think I would melt if I didn't have either of those!! My sector is going well me and my comp are pushing out lessons like no other we had 28 lessons again!! And 9 of our less actives showed up for church!! how awesome is that!! This area has been good , we are struggling to find investigators cause everyone is on vacation!! how lame is that ! who goes to the beach when its 34 C..  Anyways  We have meet a lot of new people that are less active and as we begin to talk with them they just pour out all their problems. Its amazing how many people trust us enough after 5 minutes to just share everything.  I know its the power of the Holy Ghost that we bring to their home is why they share everything with us. We have a mother and daughter that are suppose to get baptized this Saturday.. hopefully it will go through they didn't come yesterday..  We had a good FHE the other night with a less active and her niece who is our investigator. We talked about how important we are and then played Jenga and ate brownies. They loved jenga they thought it was soo cool. I never know how for grant I take the little things that we have in  states such as board games.. We had a great time  though and they are ready for another FHE. The youth here are struggling so bad and I have no more ideas on how to get them excited for church activities. Do you have any ideas? or FHE that we can do.
 My comp and I are doing great we are bonding well and she told me that my Spanish is growing and that she likes my English but only mine. hahaha I hope you all are great and took the challenge to read the BOM!!! Go to the ward activities. be involved with ward and the work of the lord and he will bless you all more each day!!!

p.s.
Did i mention I meet two girls last week that look just like Alexa and Michaela!! I just wanted to  give them a big hug and start chatting in English.. hahaha.  You´ll never guess what I ate last Monday!!! Sushi!! shrimp!! yep that's right hna Burnett eats sushi now!! yeah I didn't like that much.. sorry mom...

Christmas morning

Me with a mural in Central

Thiare and Rosie from Copayapu

The Bishop's family

Masso Castillo Familia from Copayapu

January 16th Letter

Hola Familia!
 Como estan?  Time has been flying by really fast here and I guess in the Philippines because Sister Gallagher is close to coming home!! How neat is that !! Oh and my little bro Bryon is off to the MTC how neat!! This gospel is so wonderful and full of blessings and surprises everywhere. 
    I am doing great here in my new sector Maray, its a pretty big size and very very hot!!  Yeah being a missionary during summer is no fun!! Thank goodness for shade and lots lots of wind. My Spanish is starting to click more thanks to my great Argentina comp I love understanding a lot more people !!!
 So we  had the privilege to go back to my old sector that they closed and visit our investigator Roberto. And he went to church and has been reading the BOM still and is waiting for baptism. He had to get married or change house and with in the same week he was able to find a new place to rent a room of a house with other single members and get a better job that is closer and pays more. !!!  I was so excited to hear this !! The Lord truly answers our prayers when we do our part and anything with God is possible!! So now he preparing with the elders to get baptized this weekend!! yay!!!  We had a lot of visits with our less active this week and  with  some of the members you  could see the pain and sorrow in their eyes. Its so sad that they fall away specially after recent baptisms of 1 year or less. They have this great gift of the Holy ghost with them and because they don't assist church they loose the strength of it .  We were able to get one little girl of 11yrs to come to church she has a nose piercing and wants more because  she doesn't have good friends. I think we can get her to change though and be involved again with time and lots of love. I challenge you all to do your visiting and home teaching and always be a friend to everyone. People fall away because they lack confidence and friends which I know you each can be a best friend to someone new.  Assist church every week and renew your covenants with the Lord and he will he bless you abundantly.

Ciudese mucho
Hna. Burnett

January 9th Letter

Hola Familia!

Can you believe that we have already completed the first week of
2012!! crazy!!! So our roommates hermanas received a phone call Monday
and it was the assistants calling about transfers.... We then received
a phone call 30 minutes later which seemed like FOREVER!!!  So .... I
get to start my new 2012 journal with... my FIRST LATIN companion!!!
and .... in a NEW AREA!!! That's right!! Hermana Burnett is changing
cities for the FOURTH TIME !!! Watch out here I come the other side of
Copiapo!! The area I am in is called Maray( ma rye) with my new
companion Hna. Fernandez  is from Argentina and she DOESN'T  know ANY
English... Yep Im finally hitting the ground of total español baby!!
woohoo!!
 Hna. Fernandez has 16 months in the mission and I am her second
gringa comp.  So yeah we are going to be learning a lot about each
others culture. It has been really good so far. she a really good
teacher and always making noises to explain things.. Pres. Bruce told
me that he paired me with her to give her confidence because she
lacks. I said: oh no not again. But he told her: Burnett good shell
try taking leadership and is determined . She told him :yeah I can
tell. hahaha  hopefully its a good thing.  haha
  I'm doing good in  our new area its  HUGE!!!  It  has the Las Tomas
again which are the houses that are really poor and made out of
whatever . We have a hill, and most of our people live up there. So
hopefully I will get skinny. hahah. We have two investigators that are
going to get baptized this week a mother and daughter ,  I'm excited
for this. Our Bishop is  the son in law of my great Campos family from
my old ward !! He is great and young and has this big vision for the
ward and is calling a mission leader and then four other people to
help with the different type of investigators and menos activos!!!

We went and visit a less active husband of a member. In their yard
they had 4 little dogs and then we go inside and they have 12 CATS!!!
YES 12 cats.... ah it was horrible they were everywhere and all black
and White. I felt like I was in the movie 101 Dalmatians. ah I have no
idea how someone can have that many cats!!! ah!!!
Tell Bryon that I am sooooo very proud of him ¡!! I m glad to hear he
had the same reaction as me.. hahah  Brothers… Roland ,Dallen and
Hayden.. We need to talk!! You all need to start going to church with
those great church clothes you have and receive the tons of blessings
that are waiting for you in the heavens.. God  blesses people more
when they  keep their covenants and the commandments .. And why
haven't any of you written me… jerks jk… love you but want to hear
whats up…

This is all for now!!  I LOVE YOU ALL and am grateful for all your
prayers.. Lets start Reading the Book of Mormon together!! Right!!!

P.s. Lider ( walmart)  was full so I'm sitting in this very hot
internet place writing  on this dumb Little stool, with ants crawling
all over the desk. I'm glad they aren't the mean ones..
P.S.S.umm so my hair is turning red!!! yeah so everyone things I'm
Latin because all Latins want light colored hair, well until i speak
broken Spanish.. hahaha I'm so gringa.

January 2nd Letter

¡¡¡ HOLA FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!! 

 Can you all believe it that 2012 is here and I am in THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD!!! Woohoo!!  I get to spend 12 months in the greatest mission in Chile ANTOFAGASTA and i´m so excited to be here!! I hope that you all had a wonderful New Years Party!! I'm glad to hear you did the traditional pots and pans. Here they pack up bags or suitcase of things and run around the house to say good bye to their old life. So as we were on the balcony looking at the fireworks ah family ran pass us yelling " Feliz Año"!! how cute!!  The whole day we say "hola feliz año" and they said no not yet, cause a apparently its bad luck to say feliz año  on the 31st.. The streets were full of people on 31 but all the stores were closing and same with the next day . Central was like a ghost town!!!  This week has been a long week, however a very good week. We had a lot of lessons with investigators and menos activos  making 22 lessons!]!! finally ah!! but are struggling on getting them all to come to Church. I'm blaming this week on new years and that everyone was gone on vacation since its summer here. Which by the ways its been like 98 to 100 degree here!! ah Im melting!!  Its better then being cold.
   um so for 31 we got sucked into having a little lunch with hna Maria Araya. She a cute grandma in our ward that is living alone. So we went to visit her at 5 pm shared a lesson,sang two songs, had some juice and cookies and said a closing prayer. This would mean were ready to leave right? nope not this grandma, she ask if we want tea, my comp nice and says yes. I'm thinking its 96 degrees outside. Hna Maria then says here have some salad will you wait and then fries up some fish. hahaha this grandma is sneaky!! We then leave there at 7 to head to the bishops house to have empanadas with his wife and family. When we get there hna. Sissi is cooking chicken and rice. So what do missionaries do? eat again !! yep! Luckily they were small meals and not the normal almueroz size or I would've died. yep hna Burnett is getting a little chubby this sucks.!!! Luckily one of my New Years goals is to eat only one pan a day and to lose this holiday weight.
  I have enjoyed reading the  new testament (which is a goal by our president) i have learned a lot of great things about the Lord, his life and the wonderful characteristics he has. I have also really enjoyed reading the "Daughters in my Kingdom" the new RS book.  I have  found tons of uplifting stories that I am able to apply to my life here in the mission and for my future. I also have  found great things to share with our hermanas in the ward but didn't know how to translated it all and was really wanting the book in spanish.  So yesterday during RS what happens, the president hands out the books to all the hermanas and US!!! Yay!! I was so happy and surprised to see my prayer answered so fast!! I can{t wait to us this book in our lessons!! I love the work and am so excited to spend a the whole  year 2012 in the mission.  I'm learning to love my companion more and myself, thanks to the Lord !! Im excited for  cambios this week , I found out Tuesday night if I'm staying or leaving this area. I'm hoping for a new fun Latin comp so i can get better with the language. I love you all and hope that you all start this year with the goal to read the whole Book of Mormon!!! I know that as we do this as a family we will receive many blessing for our family!! Thanks for sending my cards mom!! I hope you are having a great time with Shalise!! Tell here hi. Congrats on your new calling mom! I know you will do great and that the other sisters will learn a lot from you!! take care!! oh and I want  3 emails from each of my brothers sometime this year okay!!!

Te amo,
su misionera Hermana Burnett

p.s. we have had 3 earthquakes and they are pretty strong . It's weird!

December 26th Letter

Hola!!
Yay for SKYPE!!! I love technology!! Thanks so much for getting together and talking with me !! I had a great time getting to see all your beautiful faces!!  I enjoyed hearing how everyone is doing and practicing my Spanish with you. hahah um.. So yeah nothing new to really share cause we talked yesterday!! which was awesome..  Oh i forgot to mention that Chileans love mayonnaise the put it on everything and I'm turning Chilean cause i put it on my rice and salad just like them. its pretty funny. there mayo has a different flavor though its not normal.. um oh and we visit this one less active grandma Briecida and my comp has bad  allergies right now and the old lady said i have an answer. she went and grabbed rubbing alcohol and then splashed it on her face.. it was so funny... then my comp did it and said l oh ah it burns!!! haha I was laughing sooooo hard..  sorry this is random!!!
 Were visiting a few of investigators tonight with our DL so we get them committed to baptisms!!!  I want you all to make the new years goal with me of completing the Book of Mormon !! read it (Roland) not just listen and I know that as we  read a verse or page or a chapter a day the Lord will bless and help us through all our difficulties!! Thank you for your prayers and your support I love you all and cant wait to see your great faces again!!! Hopefully my Spanish will be better and  I{ll be skinner!!
Love you,
Hermana Burnett

December 19th Letter

Hola mama!!!

Ah only SEVEN  more days till I get to see your beautiful faces!! I'm supppppperrr excited..  I will be on the computer here at 8pm.. So 4 pm Utah time..  don't forget!! okay. Its going really slow here in Copayapu. We don´t have any investigators yet but we are visiting tons of less actives. We had a person that we contacted on the street show up for church today named Emilo. This was pretty cool. We taught him a lesson after church with 2 RM and one futuro it was intense.  he seems pretty interested but he doesn't live in our area so we have to give him to the elders. So last week I spoke in church and I'm pretty sure it was horrible cause  i  only had a hour to prepare, anyways i was thinking it will be along time till i speak again right. oh now our awesome first counselor called and asked if we could sing two songs in church a duet. so us being missionaries said yes. We practiced God be with you till we meet^ which pretty good. however the other song silent night in Spanish is super hard!! yeah we could not get it. Luckily our prayers were answered and we only had to sing God be with you till we meet. I'm so thankful cause noche de luz es no bueno.  Um we have a ward party this Friday which will be fun!! and then we are going to be caroling in the´plaza this weekend.  We were able to watch the  Christmas devotional which was pretty. I loved the movie of Christ´s birth.

I'm struggling a lot still to speak Spanish, but I'm learning a lot of patience.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas, sorry if my cards are late.. better late then never and its from chile .
Con amor, Hermana Burnett

enjoy the picture of hna Low and Quitny being Mary and Joseph!!

December 12th Letter

Hola,

So this week was so so it was long and very hot.. The highlight of this week was our mission president came and we had a Copiapo  conference. So I was able to speak with the Elders that took over Vallenar and they told me my Alex investigator was baptized in Oct. and that he received the Aaronic priesthood and that he  will be going to the temple this month !! how cool!!! and that another invest. of ours is getting baptized this week!! ah I love hearing the fruit of our work being baptized. We had nice talks given about the wise men and it was so great to hear all the faith and hard work that they did to visit Christ. I challenge you all to truly read the 12 verse about them again and pull out all the great details. Pres. Bruce talked about obedience and how this 2012 is going to be amazing in Antofagasta.  We had a small Christmas program with everyone. I gave away syrup and a toy and Elder Koons was so stoked to receive  it. I got Jenga and a neat journal from president. so I'm super excited for that...  we decorated some sugar cookies and I had pizza for the first time here and it was alright.. it really made me miss  the states pizza.. I'm doing alright my Spanish is worse and we have no investigators so this is hard but we have been visiting a lot of great less actives. we just need to get them to attend church. Sorry this week letter is lame and small.

I love you all and can´t wait to see your beautiful faces Christmas day..
next week I´ll have details

love hna Burnett

December 5th Letter

Birthday cake with Hna Lindner

Woleska´s baptism 12/3/2011

Hola  Familia,

   Mom I got my package and I'm so excited to open it!! I gave it to Hna Low to hide so I couldn't peek inside.
  Ah Copyapu has been really hard its been a big adjustment but I have had much patience and trust in the Lord. This Thurs We had a meeting with Elder San Martin who is our  (Zone Leader)  just my comp and I about what our difficulties are.  He asked and I wanted to say everything is difficult right now : my comp, the language, the new area, new ward. But I didn't I shared the area has been hard. He then shared a scripture and gave me hope for overcoming my difficulties which was perfect for me. He then asked my comp for her´s which has been confidence in Spanish and as he was directing her difficulty I was learned something too. I learned a lot about how to become more humble and to be more outward focus.  It was a perfect meeting all my difficulties were truly answered and it was because the Lord was waiting for this moment and to see if I would trust him  . I am so grateful I did or I would have made my companionship harder then it needed to be.
  This weekend we were able to baptize Woleska who is a young mother. I had only known her for 2 weeks but hna Viña says she has changed a lot  these  last 2 weeks , which I believe its cause she need us two  hermanas. We don't have a lot of investigators right now but have a lot of less actives which has been great. Its amazing how they become in active for years and forget how to pray or who is Joseph Smith.  Seeing all this people fall away has made my testimony of Home and Visiting Teaching more strong. We as members need to do all we can to be involved with everyone in the ward always . We always need to be a friend and praying for those in our ward. As we do this, the less actives will feel Christ love through us and have the desire to return.
  Remember the saying from the conference ¨WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER¨¨  We are only has strong as our weakest member. Take a stand today to serve the Lord more, especially with the Christmas right around the corner. Start today to make a difference in someones live, to make someones day.

 I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you in 20 days, no worries I'm not counting :)

p.s. Bro Patton became the bishop in ridge
p.s. mom are you forwarding these to Susan  and Brother Patton? if not, will you please

Con amor
hna burnett

November 28th Letter

Goodbye party for Elder Brown

Hermanas of the mission

My mamita and papa Mono in Iquqiue and their family

Hna. Irene, Roberto, Yantamti, Analis

Hola Familia y Amigos,

Ah what a wonderful BIRTHDAY SURPRISE to open my email and see all the wonderful birthday wishes!!! Thank you all so much I don't think I have cried so hard before during emails :) Ah this week was really hard for me I had to leave Iquique and I really truly loved it there.. Especially my comp and my Family that served lunch to us everyday. They  became my family here and made my days always better. Anyways I am here in Copiapo, Copayupa  now I arrived here Tuesday at 11 am after a very long hot bus drive... My comp is Hna Vineyard from Ohio, she actually lived in LA area for awhile and went to one of the Northridge dances that I helped with. small world huh!! We live in a 3 bed ,1 bath apartment with two sisters hna Low( from the MTc) and hna Quintantilla from El Salvador. Its fun every once in a while but hard to stay focus.. For thanksgiving I headed to the doctor and got medicine for this dumb head cold cause it wasn't going away. So we took Thursday off to getter better and it worked for the most part, isn't sleep amazing. We didn't have to many lessons this week which was weird for me but oh well we did what we could.. The ward here is great  it has a pretty good mixture of different ages. We have one  investigator named Veleska, she preparing to get baptized this week.. This is way exciting cause she needs the gospel in her life.  Um the ward is great and throwing a baby shower for her on Tues .. That's whats so great about this gospel we are so organized and on top of always helping our members and non- members!!! The high light for me this week was this adorable little inactive girl name Thiare. We went to visit her and her brothers but only found her . So we shared a scripture and asked if she would come to church on Sunday and she said yes. As we leaving the house I had her on my mind the whole time, we went and got Veleska and then head to church and as I was greeting people I kept feeling I needed to run to her house and get her, but of course its not that easy as a missionary with investigators. After sacrament was passed , my comp get up and leaves. I'm a little confused but stay seated cause I can see her. I then watch her bring in Thiare. Ah I was so happy. During RS one of our counselors shared¨I saw this girl in the foyer and asked her if she wanted to come in¨she said¨yes and no¨he asked why ¨she said ¨i´m a little sick, but i  promised the hermanas I would come¨I don't know where they are though¨he asked what hermanas?¨¨ she said the misioneras¨¨ .. That's when he grabbed my comp.
 Ah how amazing is the young daughter of God to be a little sick and only 11 years old to come to church all alone because she made a promise and wasn't going to break it.!!
 This girl is my hero!! I challenge you all to start making and keeping the promises you have made to The Lord and to yourself. Attend church, read your scriptures, pray daily twice or more, attend activities. And I can promise the Lord will bless you all even more then he is right now..!!

Love hna Burnett

November 21st Letter

Antofagasta Chile Mission- funny pose

Antofagasta Chile Mission

Happy Thanksgiving Familia y Amigos!!

 Wow this week was great!! I had my first baptism Hna. Melania!! She is so great and I am so happy  that she has made this decision, I knew from the first time we visit that she was special and ready for this gospel at the very beginning. At her baptism we had a less active that hasn't come to church for a long time so it was great to see him. And we had an investigator!! The baptismal was beautiful we had the Hermanas from Bilbao sings a special number with us.!! Entonces....This week was a little hard a time with this dumb cold but I persevered with the Lords help. We found some new investigators that live in the Las Tomas which is the really poor however the people here are the most humble and appreciative ever!! I had the gift of the Spirit so strong during the lesson. I can´t even really recall what I taught because it was the home had the spirit so strong.This was Thursday, so we head to her home on Sunday and her cute cousin yells ¨Tia can I come to church too¨ ah how adorable!!! So yeah we took her and her cousin who are 10 and 11 to church. It was the primary program which they loved and then during primary class they had a little party to celebrate . The loved every moment!! Later that night we taught a lesson and after the mom told us she wants them all to go. and that she going to try to switch her work schedule to get them all there..
 So after three great lessons yesterday that night was transfer!!! so we invited the Bilbao hermanas(menghini and  mapa) slumber party. yeah the assistance didn't call till midnight!! ah it was the longest wait ever!! so Bilbao is staying and I´m totally thinking my comp is leaving and I'm going to run Playa Brava and celebrate my birthday here .NOPE.. Hna Burnett you are being transferred to COPIAPO!!! YEP AGAIN ! To the south a 12 hour bus ride!!! And your comp is another GRINGA!! ah.. How am I ever going to learn Spanish!! Ah anyways I will go were the Lord wants me to go.. So yeah no more beautiful beach or a my three Hermanas....

Love you all keep reading the scriptures and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Eat double for me!!
p.s. parents you are both fired for not writing during thanksgiving week!! p.s.s. sorry if this is unreadable- I lost track of time and reading the emails.

Con amor
Hna Burnett

November 14th Letter

HOLA FAMILIA!!
 Can I just started off with saying I had TWO AMAZING DAYS this week!! The Lord is truly blessing us each day! First thing thanks for the leggings and earrings and PEANUT BUTTER!! They were all what I really needed!! Thanks tons mom .
   So  this week we had 9 lessons with some really great less actives that just  need love from the members of the ward. We then had to work in three-somes again on Thursday and this was really hard cause our teaching flow gets stuck. However it was good . We then headed to a church downtown at 11 pm to wait for our bus with all the other elders from Iquique and Alto Hispico so I was able to meet new elders. At 3:·30 am we headed to the Tur bus to head to Antofagasta . We had a Mission Conference with all 153 missionaries because Elder Quentin Cook was coming to speak to us on Saturday morning with Elder Steven E. Snow from the Seventy, Bishop Keith McMullin, and Pres. Jorge Zeballos. It was AMAZING!! Friday night we got together and Pres Bruce talked with about the importance of Obedience which I believe to be very important and know that when my comp and I our obedient the Lord blesses us.
      So Saturday comes and wow it was great..  We got to go and shake all of these great men´s hand and their cute wives.. We then had 10 missionaries sings ¨How great thou Art¨in Spanish and then the Talks began. The first two where in Spanish and was a little  hard for me to understand and the The McMullin couple spoke and their talks were okay but then Sister Snow spoke and it was beautiful... She talked about all the great divine people we are and how blessed our families and future spouse and families will be because of the work we are doing. Ah she had me in tears. Then Elder Snow spoke about how great missionary work is and shared D&C 11. Then Sister Cook had as stand and sing and praised for serving. Then Elder Quentin Cook spoke how ¨Real growth in Chile is happening now¨¨ He shared how important this work is, and how we need not only to baptized but to fully convert these investigators and their whole family. We need them to become strong faithful members. That we need to help those Less Actives to find their needs and share the gospel again with them and reassure them of how great this gospel is  Elder Cook told us not to worry about our pass. Let go of all the things that we have done and move forward in this life. That no matter what is going on at home or with our families that us missionaries need to stay focused and work even harder. That this mission is the BEST place for us to be and that the Lord is here to help us each day.  (He said more great things but I left my notebook at home sorry.)
      Ah it was a great day , We took a whole mission picture and zone pictures and one with Old Vallenar. Oh and the elders that took our Torreblanca area baptized our red , hot , fire ,gold Alex!! They showed me a pictured and I bawled!! They baptized him the week after we left there so  I am counting him as my first baptism!!!
    Speaking of baptism, Sunday comes and I feel like poo I think one of the 100 elders hand I shook gave me the sniffles aka head cold. So we go to church with 2 great investigators and I am sleeping through most of church cause I feel like crud. Then we take a cute YW girl with us and teach a lesson and I am following asleep during the lesson. We then go to the next lesson and I am determined to be alert , which I am and we put a baptism date for the 26 of this month.!!! We then head to Melenia a cute recent convert´s mother who I gave the awesome first lesson too where the Holy Ghost just feed me all the words. We had to stop teaching her cause she was living with here Boyfriend. And the first thing she tells us last night is ¨I didn't smoke at all last week and  I just threw my boyfriend out this afternoon, oh and I decided I would REALLY LIKE TO BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!! Yep!! how amazing we go to check up on her and she like I'm great and oh I want you to baptize me this Saturday!! ah we were so trying not to jump out of our chairs and just scream!!! So I have a baptism this week!!! ah I am so excited! She is such a great lady and so ready to live this gospel!!! Ah the Lord has been truly blessing us here in Playa Brava and I am so grateful to be  here serving and watching these great miracles.

I know with out a doubt this gospel is truly and when we do our parts at worthy Latter Day Saints the Lord will bless us every day !!
Thanks for the updates mom and the great pictures I love the hat!! you rock it the best.. You don´t  need to send a hoodie Its turning summer here. Can you just send some black dress shoe sock from target  and small yummy state treats and  an a picture of you so I can hang up a recent one!! oh tell Cory and Bryon to make a laminate a picture of their baptism and a family photo cause everyone always wants to see the family and know about our baptism experience.

Love you all and wish you ah happy week!!

Con Amor
Hermana

November 7th Letter

Hola Familia!!

 I am so glad to hear that you all had a great Halloween ! I loved all the pictures thanks for sending them. I had a great Noch de Hogar with our mamita and papmono and there sister who isn't a member . It was great we talked about our talents we all have and how we need to share with others. We then made Carmel apples !! They were so yummy!! This week was awesome, The Lord blessed  us with many small miracles. We tried visiting this  hermano from the list and when we stopped by they told us he had passed away 3 months ago. We were in shock to hear this because nobody told us anything about this hermano who was only 30 years old. the gentlemen told us we could pass again to visit the mom though. So  we went back and the husband answered and said ¨my wife would loved to hear this she needs something to relief her pain, she visits the cemetery every day¨ ¨please pass by tomorrow¨. We where is shock and so excited, So we bought her some flowers and were planning to visit Tuesday  after district meeting, however this district meeting was different we went to the cemetery cause it was memorial day here. We went and did a lot of contacts about the plan of salvation. We were praying so hard that we would run into this lady that we have been looking for hermana Angela. After two hours when exchanging all of our referrals one elder told us he found her!!! how awesome. so we go Wednesday with the flower and she isn't there , however her daughter comes so we are able to leave the flowers with her. We finally get a hold of her and she is really opens, tells us that her kids are all sad and they need something to make them feel better. she told us her children are catholic and so is she but maybe its time for a change of heart.
  We were walking to pick her u from church when she told us she cant come cause her husband was sick. But no worries we will meet with her again. We got Carlito to attend church with us finally!! wohoo!!
   Yesterday I felt like we really needed to walk up to Las Tomas which is the poorest area the houses are made of random pieces, they are shacks . Its so sad. We walked up there trenching in sand and was able to find a less active family and they opened their home to us and can´t wait for us to return. the people in this area are so humble cause they have very little. Its amazing how wide of an economic spectrum we have in this sector. Its been great here in a Iquique I have finally learned to love the people here the same as my Vallenar.
 These last couple of weeks I have been teaching a certain lesson about Goals and desires to the less actives. We have them write on a sticky note all there goals for the future. We then have them share one , and I tell them that I like their goals and think they are great. I then take their papers from them and put them in my bag where i have other blank sticky notes. I take out one blank note at a time and say however the world disagrees , having a family isn't important and i then throw the blank note mimicking theirs on the floor. I do this for them each. I then stop and say however your goals are important right. they are your goals and God and  Christ think they are important. I share mark 11:22-24 and then 10:27. And then give back the original paper and tell them that with faith and action their dreams can come true cause with God all is possible.  Everyone loves this lesson and I know its because we are giving them a visual. We have learned over time that activity and visuals make a differences.

So I challenge you all to write out your goals and your desires for the future and place them somewhere so you can read them daily. You are all children of God, so you deserve the best , so set HIGH GOALS and DREAMS and with God you will be able to accomplish ANYTHING!!
I  LOVE YOU ALL and wish you a very HAPPY WEEK!!!
Keep reading, praying and serving the Lord in every way possible :)

p.s. Mom and Hayden feel better,so sorry your sick again! Mom I got the package but cant open it tell tomorrow so I'm super excited!! thanks . Dad what colored did you paint the room? Roland you start school again?

Con Amor
Hermana Burnett